


The Next Ten Minutes

by QueenIsabelle



Category: Frozen (2013), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, I promise, Making Out, One-Shot, One-Shot Prompt, domestic AU, it's super cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 11:32:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18314501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenIsabelle/pseuds/QueenIsabelle
Summary: Elsa just wanted to bring her boyfriend—ahem, fiancé—breakfast in bed, but things don’t go according to plan. (And why does she feel like she’s forgetting something?





	The Next Ten Minutes

  
_Will you share your life with me_  
_For the next ten minutes?_  
_._  
_._  
_._  


* * *

Elsa woke up the same way she had for the past three years: soft light beginning to fill the room, soft blankets surrounding her, and in the arms of the love of her life. However, there was one difference today—the engagement ring on her left hand. It was beautiful, small and elegant and everything she could have wanted. The sapphire stone set in the middle stood out against her pale skin, surrounded by a frame of tiny diamonds that sparkled when they caught the light.

Elsa smiled as she thought about the night before—how Jack had gotten down on one knee in the middle of the ice skating rink where they’d had their first date, surrounded by their family and friends, and asked her to be his wife; how he’d carefully slid the ring onto her finger before pulling her to him for a passionate kiss. Elsa had never been happier in her life. She had wanted to live in the moment forever. That, of course, didn’t last as whistles and cheering soon surrounded them, quickly followed by parents and siblings and friends wanting to see the ring and congratulate the newly engaged couple.

A soft sigh against the back of her neck brought her back to the present. Carefully, Elsa shifted in Jack’s arms so that she could see his face. He was still deeply asleep, she could tell by his breathing and the relaxed set of his features, and she sighed as she took in his handsome features. Elsa lifted a hand to dance delicately across his cheekbone and trace down his jaw. She smiled, imagining the future that they had ahead of them and remembering the past five years of their relationship.

Elsa and Jack had met in college during a shared English class that all freshman had to take. They were paired together for the majority of the class work, in which Jack never did the scheduled readings and guessed at all of the questions they were given. Elsa had been ready to beat him with the textbook when their professor had suggested outside tutoring. At first, both had refused. Jack had hockey—the reason for his scholarship to the university—and Elsa was constantly busy between her volunteering, homework, and figure skating practice. But eventually, they had agreed to their professor’s demands and quickly became close friends. Jack was there for Elsa when she shattered her ankle, crushing any hope of a figure skating career, and Elsa was there for Jack when his dad left the family to go be with his mistress. They had relied on each other, slowly falling in love without realizing it. 

Their friends had been going crazy, urging the both of them to get together, insisting that they were perfect together. Finally, towards the end of their sophomore year, something happened. The Guardians, University of Burgess’s hockey team, had just won the championship game for the ECAC—the first time in fifteen years— and Jack had scored the winning goal. The hockey team had exited the stadium to hundreds of their peers cheering and congratulating them as they made their way to the bus. Among all of the fans, Elsa had appeared, wearing a shirt with Jack’s number on it and smiling brightly. Jack ran over to her, and she’d flung her arms around him, yelling congratulations into his ear. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but as Jack pulled back, Elsa had placed a hand on his cheek, stopping him. Before she could really process what was happening, she’d kissed him. And he kissed her back. The cheering crowd around them turned to catcalls and whoops, but Jack and Elsa had ignored them, much too focused on each other. That was the beginning of “Jelsa,” as Anna liked to call their relationship.

The past five years had relatively been smooth sailing. They knew each other’s quirks and bad habits, like Elsa’s coffee addiction and Jack’s aversion to laundry; sometimes, they argued, but they always made up in the end—though Elsa was always loathe to admit whenever she was wrong. They graduated college, Jack going into the workforce to teach elementary school and Elsa deciding on grad school to further her education. They moved in together, then bought a house together after a year. Elsa knew that Jack was the one for her; there was never any question. And, judging from the ring on her finger, her fiancé felt the exact same way.

Elsa smiled, bringing Jack’s hand to her lips to press a soft kiss on his knuckles before slipping out of his arms and sliding out of their bed. Quietly, Elsa walked over to the dresser to get some lounging shorts and pull them on. She caught sight of Jack’s favorite blue hoodie lying on the ground and slipped that on as well, relishing in the warmth and the smell of the fabric: pine and spice and Jack. She looked back to their bed, seeing Jack still snuggled into the cozy sheets and smiled, grabbing her phone off of its charger on the dresser.

Elsa padded out of their bedroom and down the stairs, plush carpet soft between her toes. The house that they had chosen was perfect—close to their family and friends, in a nice neighborhood, big yard. Elsa loved it because it reminded her of her childhood home; Jack loved it because it didn’t remind him of his. The blue two-story house was practically made for them, and Elsa still felt a thrill whenever she thought about buying the place with Jack—together, as a _couple_. When she was younger, Elsa hadn’t thought that she could ever fall in love, nobody catching her eye and apparently catching nobody’s eye. Jack had turned that thought on its head.

Which was why, the morning after she had agreed to tie herself to another being for the rest of her life, Elsa decided that a surprise was in order for said being.

Jack was a wonderful person. Yes, he could be incredibly annoying and obnoxious, but he was also sweet and romantic. He always called her during his lunch break at school. He would surprise her with flowers, usually crocuses as they were her favorite. He planned the most thoughtful dates, making Elsa do things that she would never have done by herself. He made most of their meals, due to the fact that Elsa was both terribly busy with her master’s degree and a terrible cook. Jack was Elsa’s opposite in all of the best ways, and she loved him for it. And she wanted to do something in return.

Being busy with college, Elsa didn’t have the time to do nearly as much for Jack as he did for her. She was a firm believer in equal partnership, and she felt like she was severely lacking in the “showering with affection” aspect. It’s not that she was keeping score…

But she was totally keeping score.

Elsa rubbed the sapphire on her newly acquired engagement ring as she walked into the kitchen. She wasn’t nearly as familiar with it as Jack was, as she spent most of her time in her study or the bedroom, but she was determined to figure something out. She was going to be romantic and make her boyfriend breakfast in bed, or she was going to die trying.

The clock on the stove said it was 8:37, and Elsa frowned as she thought about what they had planned for the day. She could have sworn that there was something they were supposed to be doing—was she meeting Anna for lunch, maybe?—but she couldn’t remember for sure. Elsa shrugged it off, deciding to look at her calendar later, _after_ she had successfully done something romantic for her boyfr— _fiancé_. It was going to take a while to get used to that.

Pulling up a recipe for blueberry pancakes on her phone, Elsa began to look through the kitchen for the supplies that she would need to make them. Flour, butter, sugar, eggs, a pan, a spatula, blueberries… Elsa mentally checked each thing off as she found it, pulling it out of its designated spot and setting it on the counter. Did they have pancake mix? It didn’t matter; from scratch would show more care. Hopefully, they wouldn’t taste horrible.

Elsa hummed under her breath as she found a mixing bowl and set about mixing the ingredients together. She opted for a whisk instead of the mixer, not wanting to chance the noise waking Jack up. She watched as the mixture turned into a gooey mess, wrinkling her nose at the goop. Was she supposed to add the blueberries into the bowl, or into each circle as she made the pancake? Elsa huffed. She hated being bad at anything, and it looked like she was shaping up to be absolutely terrible in the kitchen. Elsa shook her head as she turned the stove on, reaching for the Pam to grease the pan.

“You’ve got this, Elsa,” she told herself, shaking her wrists out as the pan started to crackle and hiss. Slowly, Elsa took a measuring cup, scooped out a glop of the pancake mix, and plopped it down onto the pan. Shit! The blueberries! She ran over to the fridge, pulling out a container of the fruit and rushing back over to the stove. The pancake sizzled over the heated pan. Elsa took a handful of the blueberries and sprinkled them onto the batter, hoping she hadn’t completely ruined the thing on her first try. She grabbed the spatula beside the bowl and worked up the cooked edges of the pancake, then flipped it over. The new side revealed a fairly brown looking pancake, but it didn’t look burned. The blueberries couldn’t be seen, but Elsa figured that was to be expected as she hadn’t properly stirred them into the mix. She would do that after she had finished this one.

Elsa grabbed a plate from the cabinet before the pancake needed to be picked up, needing a place to set the finished ones down. She grinned in triumph at the look of the pancake; one side was a little darker than the other, but the blueberries shone through and it didn’t appear to be gooey on the inside.

“Okay, blueberries,” Elsa said, remembering to add them into the mix before she made the rest of the pancakes. Trying to evenly displace them as she went along would be way too stressful. She dumped the container into the mixture and picked the whisk back up, carefully stirring the delicate fruit into the batter. Elsa was so focused on not crushing the blueberries into the bowl that she didn’t even notice Jack until he’d wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.

“Did you wash those?” his voice was close to her ear, and she let out a shriek, dropping the whisk into the bowl. She whipped around to face her fiancé as he leaned back against the island counter, laughing at her reaction.

“Jesus Christ, Jack!” She whacked him in the arm. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her into him as his laughter died down. “When did you get up?” she demanded.

“Like, five minutes ago.” He yawned as if to prove his point. “You can imagine my disappointment when I woke up to find my beautiful girlfriend missing from our bed.”

“Oh, you have a girlfriend as well? Does she know that you have a fiancée?” Elsa asked innocently, holding up her left hand to showcase her ring. Jack’s eyes lit up at the sight, like he’d forgotten that she’d agreed to marry him. He leaned down to kiss her, hands at her waist and fingers rubbing circles above her hip bones.

“Fiancée, right. I could definitely get used to that,” he said, kissing down to her jaw.

“Don’t get too used to it,” Elsa said, arms coming up to circle his neck and play with the ends of her hair. “Soon, it’ll be ‘wife.’”

“You’re saying all the magic words this morning,” Jack teased, pulling back from her. “Why couldn’t we have had this conversation in bed?” Elsa remembered her plan and groaned.

“Because I’m being romantic,” she said as she untangled herself from an unwilling Jack. He reached for her again, but she shook her head. “No! You have to go back to bed. I’m going to bring you breakfast. You weren’t supposed to wake up!” Elsa turned back to the stove and scooped out another potential pancake, poured it on the stove, and grabbed the spatula. She gripped it tight in her hand, ready to use it as a weapon if Jack tried to distract her again.

“You’re making breakfast?” he asked, looking over at her apparent cooking station.

“Yes, and you’re ruining my plan!” she complained.

“Your plan?” He raised an eyebrow. “You know that you’ve successfully seduced me, right? I am completely and totally under your siren spell.” Elsa shrugged him off as he wrapped himself around her once again, rolling her eyes at his dramatics.

“I’m not seducing you,” she said.

“Could have fooled me. When else do you wear my hoodie?”

Elsa froze as she looked down, remembering that she had put that on upstairs. She blushed. “It was chilly upstairs. I didn’t want to dig through my clothes.”

“Uh huh, sure,” Jack said, nuzzling his nose into the crook of his neck and dragging his hands up under the hem of her shorts.

“Jack!” Elsa hit at his hands with the spatula, mostly hitting her own thighs. He placed his hands on her hips and spun her around before picking her up and setting her down on the island counter.

“Okay, I’ll take that,” Jack said, plucking the spatula from her hand and tossing it behind him. “I’m all into trying new things, but I think we need to have an actual conversation before we do any BDSM-type shit.”

“Jackson Overland Frost, I swear to God—”

“Elsa.” Jack stopped her, holding onto her calves and looking into her eyes. She hated when he did that. It always made her lose her train of thought. “I love you.”

Elsa lifted her hand to his cheek, smiling softly. “I love you, too.” She leaned into him as he kissed her, hands drifting up to the hem of her— _his_ —sweatshirt as her legs tightened around him. Jack deepened the kiss, and Elsa sighed, her hands coming up to grip his bare shoulders. He wasn’t wearing a shirt; how had she just noticed that? Jack might have made comments about her seducing him, but it was often Elsa that was left breathless by Jack. He’d come back from a hockey game with his friends, hair plastered to his forehead and sweat tracing the contours of his collarbones. Or when he’d get back after teaching at the elementary school, dressed in a button-down shirt that outlined his form perfectly and slacks that clung in all the right places, tie loosened around his neck and ready for her to use to drag him down into a kiss.

Jack broke the kiss suddenly, pulling the blue hoodie up and over Elsa’s head and letting it hit the floor. Elsa gasped as the cold air touched her shoulders, shivering in only her silk camisole.

“God, you’re beautiful,” Jack murmured, kissing down her neck. Elsa worked to form a sentence but could only focus on the warmth of his mouth on her skin, nipping at her collarbone. Her hands drifted down his chest, one landing at his sternum and the other ghosting down to the hollow of his hip. Elsa would have been content to stay like that for hours, wrapped in the embrace of her soon-to-be-husband, but good things were never meant to last.

“What is that burning smell? Is everything o—Jesus!” Elsa and Jack broke apart as the fire alarm began to go off to see Anna standing in the doorway of the kitchen, shock written across her features.

“Anna?” Elsa asked, her mind still a little hazy. Suddenly, she remembered what she was supposed to do today: hang out with her sister who had come to visit from college over the weekend. Anna had flown in with her boyfriend, Kristoff, for the engagement surprise/impromptu party. They were staying with Jack and Elsa at the house.

Jack was quicker on his feet. At the sound of the alarm, he let go of Elsa and rushed over to the stove, removing the pan and the burnt thing that was meant to be a pancake. He grabbed the rag from the counter and waved it through the smoke that had gathered over the stove. He picked his hoodie up from the ground and pulled it on, covering up his naked chest.

“I’m gonna go… shut off the alarm…” he said somewhat awkwardly. Usually, Jack didn’t care what people thought of him, but getting caught doing some heavy petting with your fiancée by said fiancée’s baby sister was a little much. Anna raised an eyebrow at him as he went down the hall before turning back to Elsa.

“Um, good morning?” Elsa said.

“Yeah, it sure looked that way for you,” Anna said. Elsa flushed as she got down off of the counter, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her little sister.

“What are you doing up?” Elsa asked.

“I could smell something was burning,” Anna said, then smirked. “I can’t believe you two didn’t. But I suppose you were a little busy…”

“Anna!” Elsa stepped forward to hit her sister, but Anna danced out of reach, laughing.

“I thought it was newlyweds who weren’t able to keep their hands off of each other?” Anna laughed as Elsa huffed, turning away to the remains of her attempt at a romantic breakfast. Jack returned to the kitchen, giving a laughing Anna the finger and walking over to Elsa.

“Hey,” he said, wrapping her up into a hug, “it’s the thought that counts.”

“Shut up,” Elsa mumbled, her face pressed into his shoulder. Anna’s hysterics quieted in the background.

“What if… what if we ordered something from that diner you guys like?” Anna suggested suddenly. Elsa’s sad face could be worse than those sad animal videos. “You’re always talking about it. Do they deliver?”

“Yeah, they do,” Jack said. “There’s a menu in that cabinet. Why don’t you take it and go order? Blueberry pancakes.” Elsa pulled back from Jack as Anna voiced her agreement before leaving the kitchen. In the back of her mind, Elsa hoped to God that Anna wouldn’t say anything to their mother and father. Though, if she did, Elsa had enough dirt on Anna’s relationship with Kristoff to get even. Elsa shook herself out of her revenge plots to stare up at Jack.

“I was going to make you breakfast,” she said, pouting at the sorry excuse for her attempt. Jack laughed and brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

“And I’m sure it would have been delicious, but I’d rather wake up next to you,” he said.

“I was going to be next to you. Just with the added bonus of breakfast,” Elsa said. Jack grinned and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

“I don’t need any bonuses when I’m with you.”

Elsa laughed, pushing Jack away. “God, you’re cheesy. Will you help me clean this up, since you ruined my sweet surprise?” She gestured to the cluttered countertop, covered in kitchen utensils and globs of pancake batter. Jack grinned as he picked up the spatula that he’d thrown on the floor, then pointed at something behind Elsa.

“Look at that, there is one pancake that was salvaged!” He announced it as if it was some great discovery. Elsa rolled her eyes.

“That was the one and only pancake I made. Are you sure you want to try it? I think I messed it up,” she said. Jack shook his head and picked up the prodigal pancake, tearing it in half. The inside of the pancake was perfectly cooked, the blue of the blueberries glistening from the moisture.

“Looks good to me,” Jack said, then handed one half of the pancake to Elsa. She took it from him, smiling. He raised an eyebrow: “On three? One, two, three…” They each bit into the pancake. Elsa spit hers out immediately. 

“Oh my God, what did I do wrong?” she demanded, face turned up to the ceiling.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack said, his voice strained. Elsa looked at him; his face was scrunched up with the effort to keep chewing, but his eyes were wide open as if to assure her that he was telling the truth.

“Jack, spit it out.”

“What? No, it’s good. Really good.”

“Jack, seriously. Spit it out before you throw up.”

“Might be the best pancake I’ve ever had.”

“Jack.” Elsa pulled off a piece of paper towel and handed it to him. He stared at her for a moment, before snatching the towel and bringing it to his face.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was so salty! What did you do?”

“I followed the directions!” Elsa defended. “It said, like, one and two tablespoons…?”

Jack shook his head. “No, no, it didn’t. I don’t even know what recipe you used, but I know that that’s wrong. Way too much salt.” Elsa frowned, her shoulders slumping.

“Damn it,” she said, sighing. “I’m hopeless!” Jack laughed and wrapped his arms around her, having thrown away the paper towel. Elsa’s own arms came up to loop around his neck.

“You’re not hopeless. You’re insanely smart. So you can’t cook, big deal.” Jack shrugged.

“But I want to cook for you, at least sometimes,” Elsa protested.

“You don’t need to cook for me to show that you love me, Elsa. You do that in a hundred other little ways. And this?” Jack motioned to the kitchen around him, the mess on the counter. “It may not have been a good attempt, but you tried and that means a lot. I know you love me, and I love you. And we’re going to have the rest of our lives together to show that love.”

“So,” Elsa began, “that means we have the rest of our lives for you to teach me how to cook?” Elsa smiled and tugged his head down to kiss him, his laughter against her lips. The rest of their lives was going to be pretty perfect.

***

“Okay, so I ordered everything and…” Anna stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, this time with Kristoff behind her and looking over her shoulder. They stared at the couple locked in an embrace in the middle of the kitchen, Elsa’s disastrous attempt at breakfast off in a corner. Anna groaned. “Seriously?” Elsa and Jack didn’t appear to hear her.

“Maybe we should’ve stayed at your parents’ house,” Kristoff said. Anna agreed.

* * *

  
_._  
_._  
_._  
_And if we make it ‘til then_  
_Can I ask you again_  
_For another ten?_  
~The Next Ten Minutes, The Last Five Years  


**Author's Note:**

> So, you probably won’t believe me, but I totally did not plan for the musical name this song came from to, like, perfectly align with the Jelsa relationship? I wrote the story, then I was like, “I need a title!” and I love “The Last 5 Years” even though it’s super sad and heartbreaking, but this song fit perfectly, and then I was rereading and saw Jelsa=five years and I was like…. Subconscious, you’ve done it again. But, yeah. It’s a hilarious coincidence. (And don’t worry, Jelsa does NOT end up like the couple from the musical. They will live a very happy life together.)
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave comments, kudos, etc.
> 
> "Dancing on Thin Ice" will hopefully be updated within the week, but you know... college. See you soon (?) !
> 
> ~Isabelle


End file.
